New drug breakthrough can cure hep C in kids

Angelia Crouch, of Hamilton, has legal custody of her 2-year-old hepatitis C positive granddaughter, Kadileyah, talks about the struggle of caring for a young child infected with the disease.
The Enquirer/Patrick Reddy

Kristin 'Kaylee' Ferrell of Louisville, who is 17, has had hepatitis C for her whole life. She is happy to have been a part of a recent study on a new drug that has put her hep C under control. The research was led, in part, by a Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center pediatric liver disease specialist, Dr. William Balistreri.(Photo: Provided)

A new cure for hepatitis C in children and adolescents is on the way, promising to help some of the silent victims of a nationwide heroin epidemic.

A Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center doctor who helped lead the research for the drug combination says the new medication regiment brings hope for all children with the disease.

"Years ago, I told my patients' parents that, in your child's lifetime, we're going to have a cure for this," said Dr. William Balistreri, lead author of the study and medical director emeritus for Cincinnati Children's Pediatric Liver Care Center. Before this, he said, "there wasn't anything that was really reliable."

"This gives hope," he said.

That's exactly what it's done for Kristin "Kaylee" Ferrell, 17, of Lexington. As a child born with hepatitis C, she's been in Balistreri's care since she was about 5.

"He never gives up," she said of Balistreri, who is recognized worldwide as an expert on pediatric liver and gastroenterology disease.

Kaylee is among children who acquired the virus that attacks the liver pre-birth, from her mother, who was then addicted to drugs. Cincinnati Children's, along with other hospitals around the country, has seen a huge rise in hepatitis C in children.

Since 2009, Cincinnati Children's has seen a 450 percent rise in hepatitis C cases among children and adolescents, Balistreri said.

"Our colleagues in other centers are also witnessing this downstream effect of the surge in injection drug use," he said. About 80 percent of the kids in the study were infected by mothers who had the virus, and as for the other 20 percent, "adolescents had presumably acquired the disease from IV drug use themselves."

"We are in the midst of a massive epidemic," Balistreri said.

Hepatitis C is a blood-borne viral infection that attacks the liver and can be contracted through intravenous drug use from contaminated syringes as well as passed from pregnant mothers to their babies. The illness from the can be anywhere from mild to a serious, lifelong disease. Without treatment, it can lead to death; treatment costs about $80,000.

The researchers studied the drug combination, ledipasvir-sofosbuvir, two anti-viral agents marketed as Harvoni, in 100 children from November 2014 through October 2015 at 24 sites across the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. They looked for a reduction of the virus in patients' blood 12 weeks after treatment started. Two patients did not complete the treatment, but none of the 98 who did had hepatitis C evident in their blood at the 12-week mark, Balistreri said.

Kaylee was among those in the study group. "I was cleared of hepatitis C by eight weeks," she said. "I am just a happy person overall."

While many with hepatitis C are asymptomatic, Kaylee said she was often tired and sometimes sick due to the virus as she grew up. A horse rider since she was 9, she couldn't always accomplish what she wanted as she advanced in her skills.

That's different now.

"I have my own horse now and I ride him all the time," she said. Pank, as she named him, was a gift for Christmas 2015, shortly after she was cured.

Kaylee said that while she was part of the study, she took her medication, a pill, once a day and never had serious side effects.

The study was funded by Gilead Sciences, Inc., a research-based biopharmaceutical company that's based in California. Several of the researchers involved received grant support from Giliead, serve as consultants to the company or are employed by it.

Gilead is also funding hepatitis C research for younger patients, and Balistreri is involved. The work looks promising, he said.